Earthenware houses built to beat climate change in Morocco

It might look like an outpost but here in Ouirgane village we can see the beginnings of a return to earthen architecture.

At the moment there are just a few completed houses, but the complex being built here is more ambitious.

Khalil Morad El Ghilali is aiming to construct 200 houses, each between 75 and 100 square meters across 7 hectares.

El Ghilali is an enthusiastic exponent of these rammed earth buildings, this technology has been deployed to construct some of the famous Kasbahs of Morocco.

Within El Ghilali’s profession there are differences of opinion about the robustness of these types of buildings in changing climates and environments, but the issue of climate change has increased interest in the technology.

The basic idea of this type of construction is the use of natural materials such as soil and stone which are readily available here, reducing the need to shift building materials over long distances.

Supporters point out they have a high thermal mass which slows down the passage of heat through the deep 50 centimetre walls.

This means the interior is cooler during the heat of the day and the building material releases the absorbed heat when the temperature falls, usually at night.

“Whether it is an architecture of earth or stone, it is for me a way of reconnecting with our ancestral traditions in particular, and then our construction culture which ultimately makes our identity, and which is increasingly denigrated or rejected by the different actors,” says El Ghilali.

However there are obstacles to overcome, and new technological solutions required if these buildings are to become more widespread, especially in cities where large, dense populations may require taller, larger buildings.

El Ghilali believes returning to the use of these natural materials in construction requires a new, more innovative way of looking at urban design.

El Ghilali and another architect, El Mehdi Belyasmine, have won the competition to build the showcase for the Moroccan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.

They’ve called their project “Materiae Palimpsest”.

Building construction in many cities across the world is highly regulated for safety and environmental reasons and city planners and civil engineers have to have confidence in the designs.

Chakib Benabdellah is President of the National Council of the Order of Architects and was on the jury which awarded the Biennale project to Ghilali.

Benabdellah believes there is renewed interest around the world in investigating building methods which don’t waste energy.

According to International Energy (IEA) data for 2022, energy use in building stock contributed to 26% of global carbon emissions.

“The earth construction technique began to disappear to make way for new materials. The great number pushed towards new materials. But today, there is a return to the past, because we have a great concern for saving energy and for the comfort of living. And inevitably, we reconsider, we take up the characteristics of local materials which are earth or stone in certain regions. And we inevitably come back to it, and it is not only in Morocco, it is a little everywhere. These materials today, of course, are also evolving,” says Benabdellah.

Historical monuments such as Rabat’s Hassan Tower built in 1196 by Sultan Yacoub El Mansour, a ruler of the Almohad dynasty is an example of this type of building.

That and other sites are still or great importance today.

Ghilali says: “We do not actually need to look far for materials that harmonize perfectly with the landscape in terms of their colour, structure, resistance, and ability to adapt to the climate, depending on the context in which they are used. We find that rammed earth (pisé, technique for construction using compacted natural raw materials such as earth) is more suitable for plains, where it is abundantly available, while rocks or stone are more suitable for mountainous areas due to their accessibility and availability in those regions.”

He’s hoping his projects will bolster support for this type of architecture.

He believes sharply fluctuating temperatures in mountainous areas will make homes like this more popular.

“Comfort is there, because the material by its thermal and hygrothermal qualities allows thermal comfort that also allows us in the future to completely separate ourselves from tools such as air conditioning, to regulate the temperature but also everything related to internal health,” says Ghilali.

He believes these designs achieve a balance between modernity and the environment, while preserving cultural identity.

Benabdellah says the competition to participate in the Biennale was a tough one.

“The choice was very difficult because we also had big-name architects who participated, who presented very interesting projects. But there are also constraints that had to be respected. There are a certain number of rules that had to be respected. And I think that the choice was made on the architect who best responded to these constraints.”

Ghilali believes that the experience to participate at the Venice Architecture Biennale offers Morocco an opportunity to represent its diverse culture at international events.

He says: “I think that through this pavilion, our objective is precisely to show and demonstrate the possibility of doing things in a very contemporary way with materials that we tend to categorize as poor materials, old materials, and to say to ourselves that the future, ultimately, can be found right next to us.”

Ghilali runs training projects for people to learn these traditional building techniques and he has a training centre in the village of Tahannaout, to teach craftsmen how to combine modern techniques with traditional materials.